Computer science: Exposure at a very early age is a must for Phila. students

The demand for computer science talent is off the charts, even in today’s uncertain economy. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, five of the fastest-growing occupations are in computing, with some of the highest entry-level salaries available for people with a bachelor’s degree. For those with the skills to fill these positions, a computing career can literally be life-changing — providing both the income and job security to break the cycle of familial poverty and provide a better future for the next generation.

There’s one major problem: without exposure to computer science prior to college, a student’s chances of getting into the field are negligible. An eye-opening 98 percent of computer science majors were exposed to the field before college, according to a Google survey. During Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 9-15), I’m reminded that as a Teach For America-Greater Philadelphia alumni and chief technology officer of local tech firm, I’ve seen firsthand how a lack-of-access to computer science courses affects the job and life options available to students. \

It’s unacceptable that less than a quarter of students nationwide have access to rigorous computer science courses. All students, regardless of their ZIP code and school system, deserve high-quality computing options that will make them competitive in today’s global market.

While teaching, I mentored an incredible group of 15 students as they prepared for the international FIRST Robotics Competition. Among those who gained real-world engineering experience by building a competitive robot was sophomore Shayan Patel.

A hard worker and the child of immigrant parents, Shayan’s FIRST experience cultivated an interest for engineering and computing — despite no computer science classes being offered at his school. Through FIRST, Shayan had the opportunity to work on mechanical and electrical engineering, and computer science problems. More importantly, he was able to develop his interests, and figure out what he liked (and what he didn’t). Today, he studies computer science and information systems (CIS) at the University of Pennsylvania. Says Shayan, “I am quite sure that I would not have gone into engineering, much less applied to Penn, if I had not realized how much I loved engineering while doing FIRST.”

As Shayan pursued his passion at Penn, my company gatherDocs was fruitlessly looking for computer science interns. While smaller in scale, the skills gap we face is similar to that of tech giant Microsoft, who has about 3,400 openings for software engineers, developers, and programmers which are going unfilled. There is a shortage of qualified applicants — especially in high-needs urban and rural communities — for the positions which companies and society desperately need to fill.

Lucky for me, I knew a former student with the skills to enter the computer science sector. Shayan jumped right into our codebase, picked up a new programming language, and was building features for our live website within the week. He built critical features for our product and kept up with the other interns, all of whom were older and more experienced.

Shayan was able to contribute to an engineering team as a college sophomore coming from the Philadelphia School District due to two things:

1) He was an incredibly hard worker and a wonderful student.

2) He had the opportunity to learn computing in high school. While traditional computer science courses weren’t available to him, his extracurricular experiences helped him understand the challenges and opportunities of the field.

Whether you’re a teacher, techie, or invested community member, there are things we can all do to ensure our historically underserved students have access to computer science. There are numerous programs like FIRST which bring computing into schools, and rely on supportive individuals to operate.

Events like Hour of Code allow computing to enter the classroom in a very manageable way, providing coding lessons which can be completed without a computer.

All students deserve the chance to pursue the career of their dreams, with a particular urgency for those who face the additional challenges of poverty. A computer science job can change their fortune — and that of their current and future family.

In these fields, exposure before college isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a need-to-have. Putting computing opportunities into Philadelphia’s preschool-12 classrooms will take a communitywide effort, and it’s absolutely possible. Together we can ensure a bright future for our students.

DANIEL LOPEZ is a Teach For America alumni, and co-founder and chief technology officer of gatherDocs.